Laura Keith (Eldest Neice)

Entered October 25, 2021 from Edmonton, AB

Aznive was very good to her nieces and helped them all, especially when they were ill like me. When I was young she was involved in my sisters and my upbringing. The Keith family lived with the Abadjians for short while, when we first moved to Toronto. She was there to help with driving and support for my mother when we were children. I know that Aznive played piano and would play Fur Elise for us. She was born in Cairo, Egypt and moved to Lebanon with her family in the late 1920s. Her sister and Aznive worked for the French army during WW2 and put Martin and my mom Arpine though school so they could graduate. In 1946 they moved to Caracas Venezuela and eventually emigrated to London, Ontario via Gassia and Arpie, her two sisters, who studied nursing in London England. The entire family Deruhee, Hagop, Martin and Aznive emigrated to London, Canada in 1960 after my mom, Arpine, got married to my dad, Lawrence Keith who was a born Canadian. Aznive never married but had 5 nieces of which I am the eldest. Aznive outlived all of her siblings, despite being the eldest. I will miss her very much and will remember her fondly. May God bless her soul. Laura Keith, 60. October 25, 2021

Heather J Lake (friend and realtor)

Entered October 27, 2021 from Toronto

She now joins her sisters. How unfortunate Covid will mean fewer attendees but she was loved.

Leila Keith (I was her neice)

Entered November 8, 2021 from Calgary

My auntie Asnive was a dear special person whom I looked on as a very special aunt.She was there shortly after my son Keith was born,carred for us in so many ways.She lifted me up when I was down and helped always.I will miss you auntie and glad I sang Amazing Grace at the graveside.You always will be amazing grace to me.I send all my love wherever you are now.I know you will always be with me.
Love
Leila

Aznive was a great sister and aunt. She worked as an Ontario government employee as a clerk until she retired at age 65 in 1989. She also worked at the Downtown Eatons in the lingerie department. She would often give us underware for presents at Christmas which we appreciated much later in life. She was a keeper of culture and I interviewed her for a talk that I gave at the Edmonton Public Library rememberance about the Armenians and their history of the genocide at the 100 year point in 1915-2015. She told me of the Turks involvement in the genocide and how the Christian Armenian woman sewed a Red Cross on white bedsheets to create a flag and draped it over the side of Musa Ler the mountain near Modern day Aleppo called by the Turks as Musa Da. The translation from of Musa Ler is Moses’ Mountain. That was 1915 and my grandmother who was Presbyterian and my grandfather who was Orthodox Christian met there in that camp. They were running away from the Turks. The French army saw the flag over the mountainside and rescued the Armenians and dropped them off in Port Syed Egypt.Both Aznive then a year later exactly to the day, Gaddis were born in Cairo, Egypt. My grandfather Hagop went on to set up the Armenian cultural Centre in Toronto and he wrote a play about the Armenian history and what happened to him and his experiences fighting the Turks in 1915. He even wrote for the Armenian newspaper about the history of events at the time. I am thankful to Aznive for telling me my family’s history and what all of them must have gone through just to survive and eventually emigrate to Canada.